"Healthcare is in the dark ages when it comes to the use of IT," Tippett said. "When your doctor refers you to another doctor [in another healthcare system], they typically dictate a letter and send it to the other doctor by mail. The only legacy technology that get a pass on security and privacy of HIPAA is the fax and telephone.

"HIPAA doesn't necessarily require a BAA for storing data, but ... having a BAA for data future-proofs the cloud strategy for the healthcare organization," Tippett said.

Through cloud services, healthcare professionals can collaborate, share patient information in near real-time and store large volumes of data for electronic health records and radiology images. In addition, healthcare organizations can centralize data so they can operate more efficiently, Tippett said.

While most large vendors such as IBM, Cisco, and Dell offer cloud services for healthcare, Verizon said it has separated itself from competitors by offering a BAA. Doing so makes Verizon as culpable for data loss or breaches as the healthcare company.

Lynne Dunbrackan, an analyst with IDC Health Insights, said she was unaware if any other public cloud offerings that offer BAAs. She call the move an important differentiator.